By LEVI PULKKINEN, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

Updated 10:00 pm, Tuesday, January 11, 2011

A California man accused of threatening to kill Seattle Congressman Jim McDermott has been arrested and charged in federal court.

Charles Turner Habermann -- a 32-year-old Palm Springs, Calif., resident with a $3 million trust fund -- was arrested Wednesday morning on allegations that he made threatening phone calls to the office of the Seattle Democrat late last year.

Federal authorities contend Habermann admitted to making the calls because he was angry about taxes, but said he wouldn't risk losing his trust fund by attacking McDermott.

Federal prosecutors in Seattle described statements left by Habermann in two Dec. 9 phone calls as an "expletive-laden" effort to influence McDermott's vote on tax policy. According to charging documents, Habermann to have threatened to kill McDermott's friends and family, then, in the second call, threatened to put McDermott "in the trash."

Contacted by the investigators the day after the messages were left, Habermann allegedly admitted to threatening McDermott and an congresswoman not identified in court documents.

"He said he was trying to scare them before they spent money that didn't belong to them," FBI Special Agent Dean Giboney told the court.

"Habermann stated that he never had any intention of hurting anyone," the agent continued, "and that he had too much to lose -- referring to his $3 million trust fund -- to ever do anything which could get him sent to prison."

The threats preceded by several weeks the deadly Arizona shooting that saw six killed and U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords severely wounded.

Habermann also disparaged Democrats for their views on tax cuts and unemployment insurance, according to the statement. Habermann is alleged to have threatened to kill McDermott in an effort to interfere with his vote on the tax cut proposal in December 2010.

A McDermott staffer contacted the FBI on Dec. 10, reporting that the congressman's Seattle office had received the offending phone calls.

In one, the caller was heard calling McDermott "a piece of human filth," "a communist," and a "piece of (expletive) garbage."

"Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, or George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, if any of them had ever met uh, uh Jim McDermott, they would all blow his brains out," Habermann said in the first rambling message, according to charging documents. "They'd shoot him, in the head. They'd kill him, because he's a piece of, of, of disgusting garbage. …

The second message continued in the same vein, Giboney told the court, noting that Habermann identified himself by name in both calls.

Writing the court, Giboney said Habermann admitted to making the calls during an interview with investigators on Dec. 10. According to the FBI agent, Habermann also admitted to threatening a second U.S. representative, identified in court documents as "Congresswoman C.P."

Habermann said he'd been drinking the night he made the calls but was "functioning," the FBI agent told the court. Asked about his motivation for the threats, Giboney continued, Habermann said he "was calling politicians to let them know that what they were doing and saying regarding spending taxpayer's money was wrong."

Jenny Durkan, U.S. attorney for Western Washington, said in a statement that such threats "are intended to silence debate, not further it."

"We are blessed to live in a country that guarantees and protects the freedom to disagree with our government and speak our minds," Durkan said in a statement. "That protection, however, does not extend to threats or acts of violence."

"They instill fear not just in the immediate victims, but in many who might hold the same views or take the same course," the federal prosecutor continued. "Such threats are crimes, and the individuals who make them must be held accountable."

In a statement Wednesday, McDermott acknowledged that the threats had been made but declined to discuss the case.

"I have full confidence in the law enforcement agencies handling the case and remain focused on serving my constituents," McDermott said in a statement.

The charges come less than a year after Durkan's office filed charges against a Selah man accused of leaving threatening messages at the office of U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. The man accused in that case, 64-year-old Charles Wilson, was sentenced to one year in federal prison and remains at the Federal Detention Center at SeaTac.

In sentencing Wilson, U.S. District Court Judge John C. Coughenour described the Eastern Washington man's actions as terrorism and Wilson, by extension, as a terrorist.

"The very foundation of our system of laws and government, and the promise of democracy is that political change is accomplished through reasoned debate, through persuasion, and through voting," Coughenour said, reading from a text prepared by law clerk Colin George. "And we have a word for people who try to effect political change through violence and threats of violence. …

"Terrorism is not an ethnicity. Terrorism is not a color. Terrorism is replacing peaceful political participation with violence."

Federal prosecutors contend Habermann was investigated in March after making similar threats against a member of the California State Assembly.

In that instance, Habermann was escorted from the assembly member's office.

"During the meeting Habermann began ranting about the current federal health care bill and how Habermann was 'very well off' and did not want to support immigrants and Latinos," Giboney told the court. "Habermann was described as agitated, paranoid, uneasy and couldn't keep still."

Habermann then left threatening messages on an office voice mail, according to charging documents.

Contacted by the California Highway Patrol, Habermann said he was high on medical marijuana and apologized for the threatening voice mails, according to charging documents. He was issued a warning.

Charged with threatening a federal official, The Associated Press reported Habermann is appeared Wednesday afternoon in a U.S. District Court at Riverside, Calif.

U.S. Magistrate Judge David Bristow set Habermann's bail at $300,000 and ordered he be placed on home detention if released, according to The Associated Press. He is expected to appear before a federal judge in Washington on Jan. 25.

Facing a maximum term of 10 years in prison, Habermann could be released from federal detention as early as Thursday.